Image Uploads

Hi Sertman. Do I need to reload all the images to Wikitravel shared that I have already uploaded to Wikitraveler? Or have they been automatically pulled over? WineCountryInn 19:17, 13 January 2009 (EST)Thanks! Talk

In principle yes, but I'd say just do it from now onwards... --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 19:37, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Warningbox

Could I please beg you to remove the warning box and not follow through with your statement? The purpose of that page is to allow the community to discuss and to allow the user in question to defend himself even if it may go completely off topic. -- Sapphire • (Talk) • 21:53, 14 January 2009 (EST)

Erm Scandinavia might be the most appropriate place, hehe :)And Jani, I just went from the city list in the article, which of the cities do you suggest replacing it with? --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 01:27, 28 January 2009 (EST)

That was of course where I had looked. Turned out to be a cache problem, now resolved. The map looks sharp! Texugo 02:02, 28 January 2009 (EST)

I personally don't really see any reason why the map couldn't include more than nine cities, as long as they don't get too crammed together. Texugo 02:04, 28 January 2009 (EST)

Routebox navigation

Hello! Nice work with implementing routebox navigation. I have corrected some of them in Norway. You had omited some small vilages that we have articles for. But you had to have local knowledge to know about theme. I have two questions:

I have added icons for E75 and E105. I found the icons on Wikimedia Commons. Just to be sure. Is it OK to use theme?

You have put a icon for E6 in the Utsjoki article. I have checked with a map, and E6 does not pass Utsjoki. But 4 km (2mi) north of the village. On the norwegian side of the border. Should we still include E6 in the routebox, since it passes close by? E75 passes Utsjoki tough.

Rogue? Bureaucrat

Ha, Ha. You'd be laughing too if you saw my letter to Evan. What you have written is exactly what I had assumed and predicted the problems are with Wikitravel. You have confirmed to me that the "Old Boys Club" mentality is as pervasive as I feared it was. At least you freely admit the obvious bias that exists within the admins and which you demonstrate yourself. So, you will forgive me if I don't consider your criticism of what you perceive to be my "overly aggressive" ways as credible. Paula 00:42, 5 February 2009 (EST)

It is not a "cry...for backup" as you put it that I am looking for, it is the observance to the original ideals, objectivity, fairness and the freedom to make legitamite edits, of the site that I was demanding. And when I did not receive that from the people I thought most committed to those principles I was taken aback and responded concurrently.Paula 00:42, 5 February 2009 (EST)

By the way, I was not the one who had asked for the page to be blocked. I am always willing to compromise and have in the past. And if Evan is not active why has he not been removed on the active list?Paula 00:42, 5 February 2009 (EST)

No.1: If the traveller comes first shouldn't we be giving them accurate information? Does that not count as being necessary? It's not about, "my pony is prettier than your pony." It's about do these things exist or not. Is this information necessary or not? I don't know about you. I REALLY don't know about you but that's what I understand as the "traveller coming first" to mean. If the facts are not important and you refuse to see them and what you're really interested in is creating your own terms for places and inventing things because it's easier or follows some arbitrary guideline beknownst only to you and your band of bureacrats then PLEASE, PLEASE tell me now. I will be happy to let you have your way so you can play with yourselves. But if you genuinely are interested in accepting accurate information that is helpful to anyone visiting these places then believe you me, my "aggression" will subside.

No.2: Have you actually seen my edits? You would be hard pressed to see a simpler structure in some of them. I would be hurt. Every Korean local I have explained this bizarre argument I'm having with y'all would be hurt. And most importantly, anyone trying to get to the beaches and markets on Yongyu Island would be hurt. The official Incheon tourist map lists it as an island [6], Wikipedia describes the map as Yeongjong Island and Yongyu Island [7], the description on the link YOU listed also describes it as Yeongjong and Yongyu Island [8], the airport PR Centre confirms that distinction as well. I mean WTF? Even information you and Jani have listed say exactly what I'm saying. I mean which part is difficult to understand? Every official body acknowledges this. There are 2 islands and the airport is on reclaimed land between them. That's it. Paula 00:42, 5 February 2009 (EST)Paula 00:48, 5 February 2009 (EST)

SVG maps

Hi, Stefan. It'd be great if you could upload the SVG sources for your maps, like the ones you did of Scandinavia and Europe, to Shared. I was hoping to use your Europe one as a basis for maps for the other regions of Europe, but I can't without the SVG. LtPowers 13:57, 8 February 2009 (EST)

Gah, never mind! I just found the link to the SVG version. Don't mind me, nothing to see here... LtPowers 14:00, 8 February 2009 (EST)

Kyoto railway map

That map is gorgeous! One suggestion though: make it clearer which lines end and which lines continue off the map, and add the directions (to Osaka, to Nara, to Biwa etc). Jpatokal 07:42, 17 February 2009 (EST)

Yeah, was thinking that myself, but at the time I'd finished the basics, I was so sick and tired of making this map, that I couldn't bother with the finishing touches. My Japanese is not nearly good enough to transliterate all the station names to Romanji, and there are basically no usable English maps for stations outside the centre, the company maps only list their own lines, so I had to draw info from so many sources, until I discovered Google maps has all the station names - on top of that Inkscape crashed 3 times deleting 30 minutes of work each time. Anyway, will get back and finish this in due time, when my motivation comes back :) --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 07:57, 17 February 2009 (EST)

USA Images

Hi Sertman. Thanks for uniformly resizing the photographs in the United States of America article. I have only two concerns: one, that the article will now be too hard for people with low bandwidth speeds to connect to this data-rich article. And two, that the three strong verticals, Bourbon Street, Statue of Liberty, and Motel Sign are sized way too big. What do you think? Thanks! WineCountryInn 13:28, 17 February 2009 (EST)

Feeding the trolls

Hi Stefan - while well-intentioned, comments such as this one tend to be counter-productive as most trolls are looking for attention, and adding comments to a user page to let them know that they are succeeding in getting people upset usually tends to encourage their behavior. It's usually best to either just revert the trolls, or if they are getting under your skin then to simply ignore them and let others deal with it. It's annoying and somewhat sad that people choose to spend their time trolling wikis causing disturbance, but the reality is that trolls will always be around so it is best to treat them as background noise and wait for them to get bored and leave. -- Ryan • (talk) • 13:11, 18 February 2009 (EST)

Yeah, well, even though I'm Scandinavian, our trolls tend to stay hidden in forest, and shy away from human beings, so we have very little day to day contact with them, which makes these internet encounters intriguing, if a little baffling at times - especially how they find Internet out in the forest with Telenors reputation for service in rural areas. Of course people outside the Trolls natural habitat doesn't knew this, but in Scandinavia it has passed down through generations that the best way to be on friendly terms with the trolls are to leave a bowl of warm porridge outside on occasion. :)

Seriously although I do tend to become a little provoked by the buggers from time to time, that comments was as much an experiment as anything else - and don't worry - I'll clean up any mess myself. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 15:56, 18 February 2009 (EST)

Hi - I understand that these hotel folks can be hugely annoying, but please try to refrain from attacking them and assume good faith as much as possible. Calling a new user an "idiot" and a "pest" can be counter-productive when they might simply be unfamiliar with our policies and not understand why their content keeps disappearing from the site. It's hugely annoying to clean this stuff up, but at the same time we don't want to chase away someone who might simply not understand how a wiki works. -- Ryan • (talk) • 11:05, 2 March 2009 (EST)

I read it

SERTMANN, I made the changes that we agreed on buy PeterFitzgerald deleted them all including the links you created and approved for me! i just sent this to him...

I noticed you made revisions to these pages. I have been corresponding with Stefan (sertmann) and he was the one that actually made the edits to go with the picture and the link to the front royal page. please review my talk to see that he aggred that this was OK as we are trying to actually build info on to these pages to hopefully build tourism in these areas vs competing areas. sertmann and i discussed at length touting, etc. and he agreed that this small blurb with pic and link to the front royal page was acceptable.

"Good, I'll unprotect in a minute - some comments though; One listing per business is a long standing policy, which you need to discuss elsewhere, we work by consensus around here, and that one is a long standing policy - what you can do is what I did to one of your golf listings - Name of place in name of city - to link to the details, instead of having the info scattered all over the place (that also means if a details change, you don't have to update information on 15 different guides). Don't upload copyrighted images like the one of the hotel, and make sure that the information don't sound like it would on the hotels website or in an ad brochure, especially the info for the hotel is a far cry off how we want things to look here. --Stefan (sertmann) Talk 12:06, 2 March 2009 (EST) "

this is what he said, yet you just deleted all my links that he states are acceptable

ALSO, "However, you are welcome to promote golf in Virginia by adding general information about golf to the state-level article - for example, pointing out areas where people tend to go to golf, why Virginia is a good golf destination, etc. Keep it reasonably high-level (2-3 paragraphs) --Ryan"

I created the Golf heading and typed two nice paragraphs about Golf in VA as Ryan suggested and this put the type of link that Sertmann had created for me on there and you deleted that!

Hi Stefan - a question about this edit. The information about yardage, views, and course conditions are of interest to anyone golfing in the area and doesn't seem (to me at least) to be toutish. Was it removed simply because it is copied from the golf course's web site, or was there another reason? -- Ryan • (talk) • 16:31, 2 March 2009 (EST)

Not a detout, tried to shorten it a bit, per Peters and Jani's comments, and the entry just generally (to me) looked a bit long for a gulf course - feel free to revert it back the original - no strong feelings either way. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 17:27, 2 March 2009 (EST)

Rome#See

Hey there, I was just looking over the Rome page, and saw that you moved the Colosseum, the Forum, and the Pantheon to the district articles. While I agree that a large, detailed listing like that should go into the district article and that there does seem to be a few too many See listings on the main Rome page, shouldn't we leave just a short listing for those main attractions on the main page? A lot of people will at least want to see which district article they're located in. Per example, I'm thinking of the San Francisco#Landmarks section. PerryPlanetTalk 14:42, 9 March 2009 (EDT)

Oh, nice! Well after seeing the examples you sent me, I have no hard feelings on the matter either. Just checking. :) PerryPlanetTalk 15:00, 9 March 2009 (EDT)

Botswana map

Hi Stefan, thanks for the comments on the map. I wasn't aware there was a passenger rail service in Botswana (although, looking at its site, passengers don't appear to be its main focus). It's in the new version I uploaded. Cheers, Shaund 00:39, 11 March 2009 (EDT)

Europe map

Hey Stefan, I noticed that the very small country of Kosovo is missing from your Europe map (since it declared independence after that base map was created). On a very related note, would you mind uploading the SVGs you work on for the region maps—it's nice to have them around so I can correct things like this as I see them, and so I can translate them for the Russian version. Thanks! --PeterTalk 00:28, 12 March 2009 (EDT)

Erm, except for Scandinavia, where I accidentally closed inkscape without saving after I exported .png, I have uploaded all the svg versions too... Or am I missing something? --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 08:55, 12 March 2009 (EDT)

Ah, so you have. I only checked the source tag, which sent me right back to the original svg file on Commons! --PeterTalk 15:36, 12 March 2009 (EDT)

Block me

Hats off on cleaning up that mess! Combined with the successful Romecollaboration, We're actually moving towards having the Wikitravel guide to Italy not be an embarrassment to the site. --PeterTalk 15:23, 22 March 2009 (EDT)

Hey Stefan, an anonymous user has correctly pointed out that Suriname and Guyana are transposed on your Brazil regions map. I'd fix it myself, but I didn't find an editable source file. Texugo 11:45, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

Hmmm I don't quite get why so many people can't find the link to the svg's, it's right there in the summary... I'll fix it later if you don't get to it first. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 12:17, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

Wow. You're right, it's right there. How did I not see it the first time?? Unfortunately, my computer has now decided that if I run Inkscape, it's going to slow down to almost zero and cause me to waste an hour doing what should take only a minute or so. I suppose I'll leave the change to you. Texugo 13:05, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

Don't bother, I'm just about to edit that svg to add Russian layers; I'll make the en fix too. --PeterTalk 14:54, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

Huh. I can't open this svg in inkscape when I download it. Could you try re-uploading it? --PeterTalk 15:42, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

I was able to open it in Inkscape, but making edits is very slow, perhaps due to the high number of vertices in the image. LtPowers 16:44, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

There definitely shouldn't be so many that it would be a problem, but yeah, I remember having problems with that when I exported --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 16:52, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

Out of curiosity, what version of inkscape are you guys running (and what OS)? This wouldn't be the first time there were some cross-version compatibility problems. I'm running the latest 0.46 on XP. --PeterTalk 17:05, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

Inkscape 0.46, built Apr 1 2008 on Vista, but since I can't even open, it's obviously something else than compatibility problems I think. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 17:13, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

Sydney Maps

Hi. Thanks for the comment.

I'd really like a Sydney district map. The map itself isn't as much of a problem as a contining issue in defining the districts. Even when someone suggests a districting strategy - West, East, South West, etc - it still doesn't follow straight onto a map, because there are large chunks that don't fit anywhere. The other week I started on Talk:Sydney/Districts to ensure that in every place has a home. I made some tweaks to the districts, and although they eventually stuck, the first user who saw them reverted them (and maybe has abandoned wikitravel as a result?!) This wasn't a good result, really, as getting additional content should probably rate over getting the districts right. I then thought that perhaps better to use political divisions, even if they didn't correspond to the traveller view, at least there wouldn't be any disputes over what went where. Since then I have been thinking that this is a cop out. Anyway, I guess the point I'm making is that the lack of a map is due to a combination of poorly defined districts, and my less than certain footing on how it should be done. I'd certainly appreciate any further comments or feedback you have on the districting process, and what you consider to be the well districted cities. Do you prefer London, with districts like London/Oxford Street, and London/Marylebone micro-districts? Do you like Paris with its straight up and down political boundaries, which probably mean nothing to an average traveller, but are easy to organise? Do you like Chicago with its compass point and distance divisions? Should I be getting out my political atlas, going with my gut feel, or geting out my protractor to get this job done? Hmmm... --Inas 20:25, 26 March 2009 (EDT)

Malacca

Not sure what you tried to do here, but it looks like you re-inserted the rant, not deleted it... Jpatokal 10:47, 30 March 2009 (EDT)

Banaue photo

The photo on the Banaue page, that I think you uploaded, doesn't look like Banaue to me. It is identified as Cambolo. I don't want to get accused of promoting my own photos so if you can confirm that it is Banuae I'll leave it alone. Otherwise I have lots that I can guarantee are Banaue. Thanks.ShepTalk14:36, 13 April 2009 (EDT)

Hey, Campolo is one of the small villages a few kilometres up the valley, if you go to the flickr page, there is a map of where it is taken on the flickr page. I like to photo, but if you have anything better lying around - go right ahead. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 16:35, 13 April 2009 (EDT)

Responce

I'm not angry, i would just like to have been informed. And ok, I'll change it. Claire1223 16:11, 14 April 2009 (EDT)

Chez Bernard

Chez Bernard is closed. Though I thought the food was bad, even for UB standards, and the prices high, I realize it was a bit of an institution among tourists so I wouldn't have removed it, but now it is closed replaced by another restaurant with another name. I didn't include it yet, since when I checked they were open but not planning to have a cook for several months.

BTW: I tried to use Sertmann's talk page, but couldn't figure out how to make a new entrance (though this may work. I still don't know how to respond to a note to my talk page).

I just checked the history page for Ulaanbaatar and I had made a note as to why I had removed the listing for Chez Bernard. Did you just complain without checking?—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jstampfl‎ (talk • contribs)

Nope, that was 2nd time you removed it --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 22:21, 15 April 2009 (EDT)

Spam filter expression

Hey Stefan, for some reason the regular expressions you have been adding using exclamation points (I'm probably too regular expression-illiterate to understand what you are aiming for) are interfering with the rollback functionality. Would you mind starting a discussion first to explain what you are up to. Thanks! --PeterTalk 13:57, 20 April 2009 (EDT)

Maybe you want a + (one or more times) instead of a * (zero or more times) at the end? As written, that expression blocks every article with any exclamation point, even one - including your own talk page, as I just discovered. - Dguillaime 14:00, 20 April 2009 (EDT)

If anyone can think of something that does the same, but better, please go ahead - we just need to stop the edits, we can always clean up. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 14:00, 20 April 2009 (EDT)

The expressions you have been adding stop the clean up! --PeterTalk 14:01, 20 April 2009 (EDT)

I added one for < big >, which seems to be another common element. - Dguillaime 14:02, 20 April 2009 (EDT)

I know, but stopping him will help us not clean up the hundreds of pages I did yesterday, not hard - just takes forever - I would go for something cleverer but I can't find something that works.

Break

I'll try to keep the Roman hotels from running amok in your absence—hope you'll be back soon! --PeterTalk 18:58, 22 April 2009 (EDT)

Wrong Information

I find it interesting that you think it is ok to put incorrect information in without any source. For example there were many beautification projects and parks in UB before the split up of the Soviet System. For example there was the Children's park, and the park that stretched from the Children's park to the Bogd Xaan mountains. After the split up there has been uncontrolled development and not much maintanance, though they did repave Suukhbaatar Square recently. I think for some casual traveler to put in a statement of fact like "When under communist control, the city was forbidden to waste funds on beautification projects, and this policy is no doubt partly responsible for the city's present drab and uninteresting architecture." A statement like "UB is indeed one of the most drab looking cities on the face of the planet, a travesty really, considering it's the capital of one the most beautiful and hospitable countries on earth" is certainly acceptable". —The preceding comment was added by Jstampfl (talk • contribs) .

As Stefan said, we don't use sources here (see Wikitravel:Welcome,_Wikipedians#Style_differences). This makes sense when you think about it—have you ever seen a footnote in a travel guide? As it sounds like you both have already agreed on a new rewording, please feel free to make the change. --PeterTalk 13:30, 24 April 2009 (EDT)

Times article

Did you see the NYTimes travel article [3] on Christianshavn? I find their travel writers to be perpetually clueless, and this was reinforced by their (silly) Amsterdam snobbery. I say Christianshavn is much cooler, and Christiania makes the Dutch look staid. (Apologies to the Dutch in advance) --PeterTalk 14:26, 19 May 2009 (EDT)

It's not that bad, and while I've never been to Amsterdam, so I can't really compare, Christianshavn is just one canal which can somewhat justify the mini Amsterdam label. But it's really old news this, I'm 28, and Christianshavn has been the trendiest part of town for as long as I can remember. But this statement:

The area’s turnaround is due partly to government initiatives to cut back on Christiania’s autonomy, as well as crack down on the hashish stands that operated openly on Pusher Street, the island’s aptly named thoroughfare.

Really pisses me off, it's despite, not due - hell of difference. And it was Christianianites themselves who took down the hashish stands, because they were tired of outsiders clashing with the police, and because they were negotiating with the government to legally acquire the area - and it has proved disastrous since some of the hash trade has moved to much more unscrupulous criminal gangs all over the city, and sparked Denmark's very first gang war with people being shot every month (which is highly unusual for a country which had around 50 shooting incidents per year nationwide, mostly related to hunting) --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 19:20, 19 May 2009 (EDT)

Talk:São Paulo‎

If can spare the time, please have a look at that page. Thanks, --Rein N. 09:50, 28 May 2009 (EDT)

I watch listed it, problem is if we temp protect it, there is a big chance they will find another target - and I largely prefer link spamming on a talk page over actual guides, and we also have the added bonus of knowing where they are spamming - if this continues in the coming days we might have to try a temp protect, but let's give it at least until Monday. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 09:56, 28 May 2009 (EDT)

I couldn't find a discussion on the vfd for this deletion. I believe this was deleted by you because you assumed that it was created by a vandal? It was actually a legitimate page that was vandalized. I restored it. Please let me know if I goofed up or something.. —Ravikiran 08:57, 10 June 2009 (EDT)

An accident indeed, glad this didn't go into oblivion as it looks rather good --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 11:43, 10 June 2009 (EDT)

Intramuros Map

Many thanks for adding a pre-formatted map to the Intramuros page. I was all set to start editing the original SVG file today - initially concentrating on adding landmarks, editing street names and so forth - but for some reason I can't seem to access any layers in Inkscape 0.46 (that is, the file opens easily enough but nothing appears in the Layers list). I can't seem to find anything on Wikitravel:How_to_draw_a_map that would help me resolve this issue, so I'd be very grateful for your suggestions. I'm a complete novice at map editing via Inkscape so please feel free to instruct me as if I know absolutely nothing. --Diego de Manila 04:44, 15 June 2009 (EDT)

Just a quick update - I've successfully edited the SVG file without having to resort to the layered view, so I guess it's no longer an issue. I'll upload the new, fully annotated map as soon as possible (but probably as a separate file from your original version in order to keep the base intact). --Diego de Manila 20:57, 15 June 2009 (EDT)

Hovd

I noticed you put the discussion for Hovd back on the OtBP Collaboration of the month candidate page, but since it's currently being featured, it should probably be removed again. I haven't seen an archive for OtBP features but if there is one, it should probably be removed from the page and archived. ChubbyWimbus 17:26, 19 June 2009 (EDT)

Just a brain fart from my part, saw an anonymous user removing content from a project page and didn't check properly if it was on the front page yet. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 08:14, 20 June 2009 (EDT)

Kyoto districts map

Hey mind if I switch the green for the high contrast dark green pattern? I think as it is right now, the green color for mountains/forest/wilderness is similar enough to the other colors on the map where it looks a little confusing. --PeterTalk 21:15, 26 June 2009 (EDT)

Black Listed

Thank you stefan..I will follow the guides and just want to contribute to the site as much as possible. I will follow all the guidelines so can you please remove me from the blacklist.

We do have office and I will include the address where renters can get info but we do all keyless entries to the house and everything by email.
I will look over the two examples that you gave me and use them as a guide.
I will also complete all the dining,things to do on the deep creek lake page.
If you question anything that I put up about the area please let me know. I would also like to put up a history area for deep creek lake.

Thank you again
Chad

Republic of Taigh a Bata

Hi, Sertmann.

You posted a message about my little republic a while ago, and you are right. I am not going to revive it until I get a little more international recognition. I have got some recognition, however, from the Empire of Austenasia [4] - have a look under 'Foreign Office'.
Also, feel free to visit my website [5] and sign the new guestbook.
Scarwood.

Image Uploads

How you doing? I actually uploaded the imaeg to the shared drive to start with, but then couldn't suss out how to link to it. Hence I went ahead and added the photo to the website anyway - this provided me with the standard 'red link' - clicking on which toko me to an upload page, obviously the one not on the shared drive. Any guidnace on how to link to the shared site would be appreciated. —The preceding comment was added by Twbroch (talk • contribs) .

No problem, I'm having a loko at what you've done now and will change the picture and of course keep it in mind for the future. —The preceding comment was added by Twbroch (talk • contribs) .

The Chicago precedent

Hey now, those big cities [6] had their messy ad hoc districts way before Chicago had any districts. I'd say the Chicago guide has only encouraged more careful planning with district schemes around the site ;) --PeterTalk 19:58, 26 July 2009 (EDT).

You've been around a great deal longer than I have, So I'm sure you right. But just the short time I've been around, has seen it's fair share of headless districting, which I have the feeling is inspired by the fact that Chicago is (rightly) considered a model guide for big cities - and new users want to imitate it, without knowing how much work it actually entails. Not a criticism by any means, just a regrettable consequence of all the good work that has been put into it. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 20:09, 26 July 2009 (EDT)

Hey Sertmann, thanks for jumping on that. Can you point me to your source list of stops?
Also if you get bored, I created this icon too: .
Texugo 12:15, 26 August 2009 (EDT)

I'm using a combination of my LP trans siberian guide and a slow train schedule (train number >200) found on the RZD website [7]. unfortunately the transliteration sucks, hence the LP book for backup. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 12:21, 26 August 2009 (EDT)

Stefan, would you mind to give us a quick feedback if the Nusa Lombagan article deserves guide status. User burmesedays did a terrific job but Peter last time objected an upgrade and now there a lot of changes...jan 09:58, 31 August 2009 (EDT)

Citybase Apartments

Hi Sertmann,

I just read your comment. We are an agency for many cities, but in about 10 cities we own apartments - in those apartments we have a reception / office that deals with: customers when they arrive, gives out keys, can be contacted by phone etc, deals with customer paperwork when they arrive. Is this OK to post in those cities? (I don't want to break any rules - but I would think the above classify as offices)

Thanks,

Citybase

OK, thanks for the info sertmann

I think it's number 53, but I'm unsure - I'll ask our apartments manager. Do I have to put the number on each listing too?

If you're refering to another one in Edinburgh, I think you'd really be pushing your luck another one. If it's in another city where you have an office, yes, you do. --Stefan (sertmann)talk 09:56, 26 October 2009 (EDT)

Sorry Stefan, I don't understand? I'm only putting one link in Edinburgh in the Old Town section (we have another apartment in another area but I thought it would be too much to place more than one link and unnecessary) - I haven't put in another link in Edinburgh?

Copenhagen maps

You lost your SVGs? That's awful! I've lost some important WT articles I was working on, including a huge rewrite of the Turkey article, a basically complete Batumi page, and a crushing loss of a complete Chicago/Southwest Side article (which I've now rewritten), but I have yet to lose any SVGs. I take some comfort in the fact that they're backed up on Shared—except for my DC map, which exceeds the upload size limit. (Better find somewhere to back that one up online...) --PeterTalk 16:59, 14 September 2009 (EDT)

Yeah, I'm less concerned with that than the apparent loss of 4,500 dollar laptop, since some couchsurfing guest was so nice enough to leave it soaked in water for a whole night. But I did have a lot of nearly finished SVG's which are gone now. The one I'm actually most guttered about is the loss of a new 10.000x10.000px completely accurate region map for Denmark, I had overlayed with public data from Danish Railways and the road authority and municipal borders from government data, but damn when I think about it I had many nearly done maps lying around. Oh well, as we say here, no point in crying over spilled milk. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 18:19, 14 September 2009 (EDT)

Contacting IB

Probably the main problem of communication comes from a certain episode where personal relations deteriorated in dramatic fashion between IB's main WT contacts & myself and Cacahuate—we had earlier taken the lead in cooperation with IB. It's most likely related that those contacts have been swapped for new ones (Keith Hoerling & Dick Bradley). I'll try to get back in touch on a more regular basis with them via email, and see if I can't get some of the low-work, high-value tech requests resolved (IB is rather bad at on-site communication or wiki-ways generally). I have a pretty good rapport with Keith, and hopefully will establish one with Dick. --PeterTalk 17:27, 23 September 2009 (EDT)

I suspect the main problem of communication is that IB doesn't give a shit about anything that doesn't increase their income in the short term. Jpatokal 01:30, 24 September 2009 (EDT)

Osmatravel rendering results

Hi Stefan,

I've run my current version of the scripts against your in-page config, and it looks like everything is good. There are a lot of missing listings, but otherwise it's fine. Here's the SVG and the [:Image:Copenhagen_Østerbro_map_with_listings.png png]. Unfortunately Wikitravel doesn't seem to like the special character in the image name, so probably we'll have to work around that. You can download the image to proof it though. -- Mark 15:28, 27 September 2009 (EDT)

Big Mac Index

Hi Stefan - what was the point of the Big Mac Index on the USA article? It was added without an edit comment so I may just not understand the joke, but it looks a bit hack-ish in the article and opens us up to more questionable additions on an already overloaded article. My preference (obviously) is not to include it without at least a bit more background, so would it be possible to at least re-format it and make it into a more standard infobox with a paragraph or two of text? Thanks! -- Ryan • (talk) • 14:04, 30 September 2009 (EDT)

Experimenting, with a lay out for global - cross site - cost comparisons using the Big Mac Index and the Hotel.com Hotel price index, wasn't suppose to save it, and reverted it now. Problem is it doesn't really fit into prose, and doesn't look good in a infobox, but is useful to travellers. Oh well, it turned out that getting Big Mac prices for the Euro zone is a bitch, so I've dropped the idea for now. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 14:40, 30 September 2009 (EDT)

Country

Avg. room price

Big Mac

Sweden

201.51

5.56

Denmark

179.12

5.78

Norway

174.32

6.84

Italy

166.33

Finland

163.13

France

156.73

Switzerland

156.73

6.28

Netherlands

155.13

4.31

Greece

148.73

Belgium

145.54

Germany

135.94

4.37

Austria

132.74

United Kingdom

132.74

3.65

Spain

131.14

Portugal

127.94

Ireland

118.35

5.42

Hungary

116.75

3.89

Poland

111.95

2.62

Czech Republic

108.75

3.93

United States

115

3.57

Got it, thanks for clarifying! What might actually be useful is just a simple template that could be included in country articles that give prices for maybe 5-10 benchmark countries, and the prices for the country in question. Something very similar to the table above... just a thought. -- Ryan • (talk) • 15:22, 30 September 2009 (EDT)

Sorry for jumping in. Finding a right 5-10 countries to compare with will be always disputable. What if we place only this country's value, linking to the whole list of countries and their indexes on a separate page?

And -- recently I had a related discussion with Pashley, with the same idea in mind: all price-comparison-related info should be placed into destination guides. --DenisYurkin 16:49, 30 September 2009 (EDT)

Problem here being that it's hard to find globally comparable data the Hotel.com HPI is really good for a project, but only covers entire countries in Europe, we could do with capital cities and get much better coverage, but I'm not sure about that, and while Big Mac is a global brand, it's not available in every country. If we list capital cities outside Europe, and the Big Mac index, we might cover around 70 nations or so...?

Denmark: What to buy

Thanks for such a diverse and comprehensive list for Denmark. I expected that my small edit will trigger some other contribution, but not expected it will be that prompt and detailed :-) Thanks, Stefan! --DenisYurkin 17:08, 4 October 2009 (EDT)

What is a Fuidecity?

You changed the Rochester MN city tag from usablecity to fuidecity. But that template doesn't seem to exist at this point. Was that a typo? Jbradfor 17:21, 11 October 2009 (EDT)

It was indeed, a bit premature probably now that I look over it again, thanks for catching that. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 17:28, 11 October 2009 (EDT)

Vacation Rentals Listings Sites?

Hey Groundskeeper, is it ok if I put my vacation rentals site on here? I noticed some locations have VRBO listed...

You can check our policy here, in a nutshell, if you have a physical real world office where people can actually show up, AT the said destination, and include the address of course as well as your price ranges, and provided you are the exclusive agency and don't tout. Yes. Otherwise a resounding no. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 13:34, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

Ok, went ahead and created a User:Collegeweekends User page with our info. Our #1 goal is to just to provide visitors with more options then just hotels and bed and breakfasts. If we have fulfilled all of the guidelines, what would be the best way to link our site to Wikitravel? Should we provide links to individual properties like this, or should I link to our listings page, or just stick to something vague and point to a specific location's homepage

The listing should look something like this:

College Weekends, YourOfficeInBoulderStreet 99, ☎+1 12345689 ([email protected]), [1]. 8 apartments across various locations in Boulder, mainly geared towards visitors to University of Whatever, Cleaning provided free of charge/for a billion dollars/Selfcleaning at the end of/during your stay. All rentals have fully stocked kitchens, televisions and may or may not have clean linen and a Texas Rangers action figure. $170-290 per day.

I like that format a lot, but unfortunately we don't have a physical walk-in office. However, several of our listings are happy to post their physical address, so can we post their listing as the physical entitiy in each community?
--User:Collegeweekends 16:00 13, October, 2009 MST

--

OK, so here it gets tricky. We don't want to have several different properties from College Weekends listed everywhere that has a University. This is a freehand mishmash of our policy, but I think our opinion would go something like this; if you are the only agency where you are able to book these properties through, you may list one property per destination (if the town is districtified one per district), The properties must include:

Physical address

The owners direct phone number (but you are also free to provide yours in addition)

one thing of note though, you don't seem to be exclusive for this property no? and please notice the omission of "fabulatastic luxuriously pampering property located not only near, but INSIDE! EVERY attraction, restaurant, bar in the city, TOTALLY CHEAP but we won't tell you how much until you're at our website!". Doesn't work around here, people are just too smart :) empty listings without descriptions also tend be deleted rather quickly when we catch them - we don't want to be the yellow pages. All that being said, thanks for taking the time to ask the right questions, wish more business owners would do that. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 18:54, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

This all sounds great. We're going to get the permission of our favorite exclusive listings across our site and round up the information necessary to post them. Thank you for your continued assistance throughout the day, and you can expect to see us start posting our listings tomorrow. If any conflicts arise, I'll do my best to ask you through this conversation that we are fulfilling your aforementioned guidelines.
--Collegeweekends 19:27, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

Sorry to jump in to the conversation, but this discussion should probably be moved to Wikitravel talk:Accommodation listings. If College Weekends is solely a listing agency and they don't have offices in the towns that their listings are for then it seems fairly clear to me that this site doesn't meeting the guidelines set forth in the Rental listing policy, specifically "An exclusive letting agent would normally be expected to have a 'real world' office with a phone number and a physical address at the destination for picking up the keys, managing the property and/or resolving rental issues.". I appreciate that the site is trying to work with us, but I'm not sure how we can allow this site yet disallow the myriad rental agencies that try to post here. -- Ryan • (talk) • 19:42, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

Was just about to post a link to this in the pub, but I'll move it there instead. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 19:45, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

Profile Travel Map

Hi. I saw the world map you have on your profile page with all the countries you have been to in red. Kind of fancy one myself. Can you tip me on a source that requires little or no programming skills?
Thanks
Mariusm98 13:59, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

I made that one myself, but this one is popular, just click right click > save as when you're done, and upload it here the html code he provides, probably won't work too well here --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 14:17, 13 October 2009 (EDT)

Luang Prabang

Hi Stefan.. do you really think Luang Prabang is a guide article? Well obviously you do, so that's retorical :) I have this one on my list to address and put a few of my photos up there a while back. There is a lot of good info (and some not so good) there but it needs quite a big re-write I think. Cheers. --Burmesedays 09:10, 14 October 2009 (EDT)

Well, checked if it covered all the major attractions, the mekong boats, the good bars etc. which I remember from my visit, and that seemed to check out, though I was only there in 2001, so it's definitely been a while, if things have changed dramatically, feel free to demote it. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 14:12, 14 October 2009 (EDT)

I hate demoting so gave it a bit of a spring clean instead :). Cheers. --Burmesedays 08:42, 15 October 2009 (EDT)

Copenhagen intro

Nice work. I wanted to mention, though, that I think "swanking" is your own coinage (aside from a few totally fabricated ones [8] at urbandictionary). Not that I'm saying you should get rid of it—I rather like the child of swanky and spanking new! --PeterTalk 12:58, 14 October 2009 (EDT)

I'm not the only one to use it apparently, per:[9], [10], [11], [12] and [13], though they can't seem to agree on if it is:

Present participle of swank; Fashionably elegant.

intransitive verb; To act ostentatiously or pretentiously; swagger.

So I guess there is a fair chance it will convey something unintended, seems to be a UK-US English difference. --Stefan (sertmann)Talk 14:05, 14 October 2009 (EDT)

Deleting hotel from the listing

Hi,
I read advised info before posting. There is nothing about "don't add listings to country ". I can quote paragraph proving that i do everything according RULES. Interesting, that another guys can have their info there. Not fair. Why you call yourself free project, if only ppl you chose (i mean PAY) can stay on definite spots. Btw from District section (not country) my listing was deleted as well. It upsets, really, that my time and energy is spent for nothing.
Kate

I'm happy that i made you laugh. Yeah, was working hard to UNDERSTAND how all it works here. And please without irony. Could you please be kind enough to explain me normally what's wrong and where i can (or i cant at all?) to place the info about those hotels. —The preceding comment was added by Bodrogeni (talk • contribs) .

Italy

I'll leave Italy to you for today and come back to it tomorrow, hopefully. Else we could make a terrible mess editing at the same time.Shep 15:43, 19 October 2009 (EDT)

Clean-up

You're very welcome...and thanks for the words of encouragement! I worked on a west coast city too, but am hoping to make Iowa sparkle. :) I did a bunch of work 3 yrs ago but sort of getting into it again...feel indebted to the folks who've posted stuff for Asian destinations. Still learning how to use Wikimarkups and just hope I'm not doing too bad of a job...have a good one! Drew 17:45 Zepppep 17:46, 22 October 2009 (EDT)22 Oct 2009 (EDT)

The many hours I spent trying to clean up Kansas City, MO's article seem to have been for naught...I don't see the changes and on the history tab of the article, I don't see any actions listed that someone else might have done (i.e, revert changes).

Furthermore, I just spent about 1 hr. cleaning up the Drink section and something happened on the page where the entire edit page went blank except for the Wikitravel logo (everything...even the edit box outline). Not sure...but pretty PO'd. Any idea about what's going on with either situation? Not too motivated for doing the same thing AGAIN!Zepppep 13:27, 26 October 2009 (EDT)

By all counts I'd suspect a local catching issue, try hitting F5 and if that doesn't help, click edit and select Purge cache in the buttom of the page: is these all your edits? - if they are, it's definitively a caching issue, rather than anything being lost. --Stefan (sertmann)talk 13:59, 26 October 2009 (EDT)

Customised signatures

Hi Stefan, I notice you signature is customised, but can not find a page to describe how it is done. Could you give me a pointer? Pbsouthwood 03:18, 23 October 2009 (EDT)

You can alter your signature by entering something into the "Nickname" field in your "preferences." For example, I check the box for raw signatures, and use the text: [[User:Peterfitzgerald|Peter]] <small><sup>[[User_talk:Peterfitzgerald|Talk]]</sup></small>. --PeterTalk 03:32, 23 October 2009 (EDT)

Thanks Peter, most helpful, as the procedure is not obvious. Cheers, Pbsouthwood 01:50, 26 October 2009 (EDT)

Script nominations

Hello Stefan-san,

I've self-nominated my inter-language linking bot for ko: at shared:Script nominations#Tatatabot on ko:, and I need one more admin's support to get approval because our policy states If 2 administrators voice their support for the script within 7 days, and none oppose it in that period. Would you support this nomination?

I feel this is a mere formality since the bot already has bot flags on all language versions except the latest one[14] and many people know its usefulness[15]. But I'd like to complete the nomination process since I need evidence to request IB's tech team to flip a bot flag, or since I'll need evidence to flip the flag by myself after I get a bureaucrat flag of Korean version. So, it is much appreciated if you would vote.